NEW YORK — In the latest surprising U.S. Open season, Jessica Pegula took advantage of a bad night by Iga Swiatek to send the world No. 1 out of the tournament. The world No. 6 won 6-2, 6-4 in just under 90 minutes to advance to the semifinals against Karolina Muchova of the Czech Republic. She is the fourth American to reach the semifinals of this year’s tournament in New York, joining Emma Navarro, Frances Tiafoe and Taylor Fritz.

The last time several American men and women reached this stage of a Grand Slam tournament was in 2003, also at the US Open. In addition to eventual champion Andy Roddick, Andre Agassi, Lindsay Davenport and Jennifer Capriati were there.

With this victory, sixth-seeded Pegula reached her first Grand Slam semifinal. She had previously lost six quarterfinals, including two in each of the last two seasons, despite rising to third in the world rankings and winning WTA Masters 1000 tournaments – just below the level of a Grand Slam.

“I lost so damn many times,” Pegula said from the courtroom when it was all over.

Shortly before her 30th birthday at the end of last season, Pegula fired her long-time coach David Witt. In five years, he had taken her from outside the top 100 to within touching distance of the top of the sport. Pegula wanted more. She wanted one of those trophies that Swiatek collected like snow globes.

Pegula told herself that if she could just keep making it to the last eight, she might be able to reach the quarterfinals. At Wimbledon 2023, she missed a golden opportunity when she was leading 4-1 in the final set against Marketa Vondrousova, who had little Grand Slam experience and no history of success on grass. As it turned out, she won the whole thing.

Jessica Pegula is in her first Grand Slam semifinal at the seventh attempt. (Robert Prange / Getty Images)

Now, 15 years after turning professional, she is just two wins away from her first. She benefited from an error-ridden performance from the world number one, which becomes an unwelcome topic in her rare defeats. In such defeats, Swiatek shoots the ball everywhere but between the lines. In 16 matches, she made 41 unforced errors.

“I wanted to play the way I wanted to play,” she said when the match was over, to gauge Swiatek’s level before deciding how small she needed to keep her distances. She noticed immediately that Swiatek was out of form and was getting frustrated, especially on her serve. She told herself she had to attack. “I made a point of really trying to intervene and keep that up the whole time.”

And it worked, even in the second set, when Swiatek served better but couldn’t find his rhythm.

“Normally I can push it back or put pressure on myself, but today I just made too many mistakes,” Swiatek said.

This defeat was the latest slip-up for the five-time Grand Slam champion in a frustrating summer. Since her triumph at the French Open, her fourth title at Roland Garros and her third in a row, she has come up short at every tournament. The defeat left no doubt about her reputation as one of the greatest clay court players of modern times.

Swiatek has been on shaky ground since her departure from the red clay court in Paris. She lost to Yulia Putintseva in the third round of Wimbledon, a defeat that resembled many other defeats, and a little bit like this one. Even when she briefly returned to clay for the Olympics, she put in a similar performance against Zheng Qinwen in the Olympic semifinals before losing to Aryna Sabalenka in Cincinnati.

The long season has taken its toll on Switek’s body and mind. She deserves the exhaustion, having played well in all the clay court tournaments she entered in the spring and winning three of them. Since then, summer has become a grind, and her only consolation is a bronze medal at the Paris Olympics after blowing her chance at gold.

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All bad losses look basically the same. Her serve, which has become a more serious weapon of late, isn’t getting in the court often enough. Her vaunted forehand, a frighteningly efficient shot over the past three seasons, is flying wildly off the court. The backhand, normally a stabilizing force, begins to fail next, and Swiatek, often one of the game’s best problem solvers, simply tries to hit the ball even harder, whether it’s short in the court or deep on the baseline, expecting a different result that never comes.

Iga Swiatek’s groundstrokes let her down. (Al Bello / Getty Images)

Although she knew that Swiatek had pulled a few rabbits out of the hat at the French Open and had won a match point, Pegula served for the match and remained calm.
She put her serves in play and let Swiatek’s errors – including a forehand return that landed almost outside the lines after a 65 mph second serve – give her three match points. Swiatek fended off one with a crisp forehand winner across the court, and another with an even crisper backhand down the line.

But then, like all night, her backhand ball flew wide and Pegula’s arms were in the air.

Pegula’s victory added another star to the U.S. Open, which has suddenly become an all-American affair. Tiafoe and Fritz will face each other in Friday’s semifinals, the first all-American semifinal since 2005, guaranteeing an American will be in a Grand Slam final for the first time since Andy Roddick lost to Roger Federer in the fifth set at Wimbledon in 2009.

And yet so much of the mountain has been preserved.

In Muchova, Pegula will face one of tennis’s greatest natural talents, a player who, when healthy, can float around the court like no other and then score points at the net like no other. She has been nursing a serious wrist injury for most of the season, but Muchova has quickly returned to form this summer and has yet to drop a set in New York.

Navarro will face Aryna Sabalenka, a two-time Australian Open champion and arguably the best hard court player in the world. She has been strong throughout the tournament and is playing just as she did in Australia in January.

Either Jannik Sinner, the world number 1, or Daniil Medvedev, the 2021 champion, are the most likely opponents for Tiafoe or Fritz in the men’s final.

They could all take advantage of the opportunity presented by Pegula’s clinical running game on Wednesday night.

“I was able to take advantage of some things she didn’t do well,” Pegula said.

(Fatih Aktas/Anadolu via Getty Images)